Boubeker is a Foulah by birth, and his family resides at Fouta-Toro; his communications with M. P. Rouzée, however, were in Arabic. On his departure from his native town Fouta-Toro, he immediately proceeded to Ojaba, and from thence to the great town of Tjilogu, the capital of Fouta-Toro. After receiving the benedictions of the Almany, he hastens to pass the frontiers of Fouta, and soon after reached the kingdom of Caguoga, inhabited by the Sericoulis. He halted several weeks at Jawar, one of the principal towns of the country, then, passing gently through the province of Kasso, after about three months' absence since his departure from Seno-Palel, he reached Jarra, a considerable town, situated north-eastward of Jawar, the capital of the territory of Bagona. Jarra belonged formerly to the king of Karta, but it is now dependant on the Moors, and its population consists principally of merchants of that people. The trade here is considerable, particularly in salt, which is brought hither from the town of Tishet, near which are extensive salt mines. His journey from Jarra to Sego exceeded a month's travelling. The country is covered with forests. It is peopled, but little cultivated. Sego, the capital of Bambarra, is situated to the east of Jarra, on both the banks of the Joliba. Bambarra is very fertile. The parts cultivated by the Foulahs are in general the most productive. From Sego our traveller directed his steps towards Timbuctoo; and after travelling 27 days, reached that town. Timbuctoo is situated towards the north-east of Sego, at a short distance from Cailoum, a considerable river, which Boubeker thinks is a branch of the Joliba. Timbuctoo is as extensive and as populous as Sego, but much richer, having more trade. A considerable portion of the inhabitants are Moors; but the Twaricks are equally numerous, and sometimes superior to the Moors, in power and influence. Boubeker intended to pass through the kingdom of Twart,' situated north-east of Timbuctoo, and proceed to Fezzan, to await the caravan of pilgrims from Barbary, which was about proceeding to Mekka through Egypt; but having no other subsistence on the road but the alms of pious Muselmen, he altered his plan after having contemplated the poverty of the Twariks, and their indisposition to charity. The Twariks are a Bedouween, and a warlike race, professing Islamism. Our traveller resolved, therefore, to return along by the banks of the Joliba, 'The name of the country inhabited by the Twaricks. and arrived at Jinée the 10th day after quitting Timbuctoo. These two towns he considers as forming a part of Bambarra, and they are nearly in the same parallel of latitude. A great trade is carried on at Jinée: the negroes are more numerous there than the Moors; but the latter have the jurisdiction and authority. From Jinée our pilgrim arrived in thirty days at Housa, which is a large town, situated two days' march from the Joliba. This journey was partly performed in a canoe on the river, and partly a-foot, passing through the countries of Kabi and Noufi. The country known by the name of Housa comprehends five or six states. The Housians were formerly the only inhabitants, but at present the Foulahs and the Twariks possess, with the Moors, the greater part. The Foulahs occupy almost exclusively the western quarter, which is therefore called the Foulan. These Foulahs resemble in their color, physiognomy, and language, the inhabitants of Fouta-Toro. Among themselves they take the name of Dhomani. The Housians are black like the Joliffs, or the Seracoulis: they appear to understand but little of agriculture, or the rearing of sheep; whilst, according to Boubeker, the Foulabs are the best shepherds and the best laborers in the world. The Foulah country is the best cultivated of any he ever saw; and he therefore places it next to Egypt for richness and produce. The domestic animals are in greater abundance, and in better condition, than any where else. There are neither sugar canes, nor such a variety of fruits as in Egypt and in Syria. But wheat, barley, and two kinds of Indian corn, are produced in abundance: hemp and cotton also, with which they manufacture cloths, which they die with the indigo of their country. They understand the art of dying in blue and in all other colors. The town of Housa has less commerce with Timbuctoo and Jinnie, than with the countries situated to the eastward. The sultan who resides at the town of Housa, is the most powerful of all the negro sovereigns in the western countries of Housa. Our pilgrim proceeding from Housa eastward, was nearly a month travelling before he reached Kassinah, which is the most considerable town of the eastern part of Housa on the banks of the Joliba: it is fifteen or twenty times the size of St. Louis on the Senegal river. From Kassinah he proceeded to the town of Bournou, which he places exactly eastward of Kassina, the Joliba river passing through the whole country of which it is the capital. The natives of Bournou are as black as those of Housa, Query. Is not the name itself a kind of corroboration of this opinion? It signifies in Arabic, a cultivator or farmer. and resemble the latter in manners and customs, but they speak a different language, and are considered more courageous, as well as more intelligent. The sultan of Bournou is very powerful, and has a numerous cavalry. From Bournou he proceeded to Wadaé (Waday), where he no longer observed on his right the river Joliba. He often inquired where that river terminated, and he was invariably informed that it communicated with the Nile. Its course according to some was southerly, and extending to the interior of Hubesheh or Abyssinia. Wadaé is watered by many rivers which join the Joliba. Boubeker crossed the country in the direction of south-east to northeast, and entered the territory of Begarmé. He soon after reached the great lake of Kouk, which receives a mighty stream from the south. The sultan of Kouk is often at war with the sovereigns of Begarmé and of Wadaé. Nearly two months after his departure from Kassinah, he reached the mountains of Four; but he remarked no great town between these mountains and Bournou. From the Four country he passed on eastward to the country of Kordofan,' inhabited exclusively by Arabs. After proceeding along the banks of the river two or three days, he crossed it opposite to Tjondi, a considerable town, from whence he entered the Barbara country, where he found the inhabitants occupied in agricultural pursuits, who resembled in physiognomy and complexion the Foulahs. From Tjondi he arrived in fifteen days at Suakim on the Arabian Gulf, and from thence he embarked for Jidda, the port of Mekka; having thus journeyed during fourteen months or thereabout, since his departure from Seno-Palel in Senegal. Our pilgrim, after performing his devotions at Mekka, went to Medina, and from thence to Jerusalem, St. Jean d'Acre, Cairo and Alexandria. In this last town he remained a long time, and then embarked for Algiers, where he remained several years, after which he again returned to Fouta-Tora by the Marocco caravan, passing through Telemsen, Fas, Mequines, Marocco, Wadinoon, and the Sahara. From his long residence in Egypt, and on the coast of Barbary, at Alexandria and at Algiers, he had forgotten many particulars, which, although uninteresting to himself, would have been important to Europe. This interesting Itinerary is followed by some apt observations of M. Rouzée, who thinks Cagnana, a kingdom so named by Boubeker, the same with the Gayaga of Labat, and the Kaiaaka of Mungo Park. Djarri is the town called by Delislo, Jara, and This is confirmed in the Classical Journal, No. XLIX. p. 150. by Mungo Park, Farra. These little differences will necessarily continue in the progress of our discovery of Africa, until the Arabic language shall become more generally known. The Moors, M. Rouzée observes, scarcely know the name of Farra, but call it Bagnall, which is the name of the country of which it is the capital. Some Arab sheiks spoke to the translator of this paper from the Arabic, of a town named Tedjagja, which is near to Waden, or Haden according to the maps, where a great commerce is carried on in salt. The translator thinks this place is identified with Tagazza.' The position of the kingdom of Bournou, as Boubeker has described it, agrees exactly with Hermeunus account. The great river which runs from the south into the lake Kouk, appears to M. Rouzée to be the Misseled of Brown. The mountainous country of Four is unquestionably Dar Foor. Tjondi is the Shandi of the maps. The Arabian writers mention a country called Barbara, inhabited by a race of a reddish-black color.3 Our Senegal translator heard the traveller mention the name of Wancarah, which is unquestionably Wangara. Boubeker places the country south of Bournou, and describes it as being overflowed by the Joliba, as Egypt is by the Nile, and that gold abounds there. He had heard of Kano and Guebur (Cano and Guber), but he did not recollect their position. He says Takzour in several of the negro languages, siguifies the same with the Arabic word Sudan, i. e. Nigritia. 4 Translated from the French by JAMES GREY JACKSON. This is likely enough, because the latter word is spelt with the Arabic guttural letter grain, (¿) which partakes of the English G and R, but can hardly be pronounced by an European throat. 2 For a dissertation on the Arabic word Dar, vide Classical Journal, No XLIX. p. 149. 3 We suspect these to be the Berebers, originally of the Atlas. Their dark color does not weaken this opinion: the same race of men living in mountains, and afterwards coming down to inhabit the plains, soon become several shades darker, as I have myself perceived in the mountains of south Atlas. Also by exposure to the sun and air of the plains. I recollect having an interview with Muley Soliman, the present emperor of Marocco, at Mogador, before he became emperor, when he was as white as a native of southern Europe. He is now almost black, or rather was so, when I had my last audience of the sultan; that is to say, about 16 or 18 years ago. They may also be the Brabeesh, who are Arabs occupying the country north of Timbuctoo, as also east of Cairo in the Nubian desert, between the Oasis and that city; for which see the map alluded to in the following note. See the situation of this place in the map of the caravans in Jackson's account of Marocco. NOTICE OF IDYLLIA HEROICA DECEM, Librum Phaleuciorum Unum, partim jam primo partim iterum atque tertio edit SAVAGIUS LANDOR. Accedit Quæstiuncula cur poëtæ Latini recentiores minus legantur. Pisis, apud S. Nistrium MDCCCxx. ̓Αλλ' ἐφομαρτεῖτον καὶ σπεύδετον ὅττι τάχιστα THIS is in all respects an extraordinary publication. A volume of Latin compositions, by an Englishman of the nineteenth century, is of itself a phenomenon. The character of the pieces themselves, too, is heterogeneous; exhibiting, amidst numberless inaccuracies of phraseology and violations of costume, a classical spirit, and an acquaintance with the true genius of Latin poetry, such as has rarely been equalled, especially in these modern times. To complete the anomaly, the work is published, not in the author's native country, but in a foreign land, from motives which will hereafter be explained in a quotation from his Latin essay. Of Mr. Landor himself our knowledge is principally derived from his writings; from these we gather that he is a man of an original and somewhat eccentric turn of mind, independent in his opinions on all subjects, and free in his declaration of them. As a writer, his characteristics are vigor of fancy, acuteness, and nicety of taste; with which he joins a share of classical scholarship greater than has fallen to the lot of English poets in general, since the time of Gray. Like Gray, he has cultivated Latin poetry and that of his own language with equal zeal, and almost equal success. We call him an English poet, although of those now existing he is the least known: were we, however, from our partial acquaintance with his works, to assign him a place among the highest, we have reason to believe that we should Il. V. 414. Mr. Landor has not given the passage accurately. Read στεινωπῷ and παραδύμεναι, |